Note: this page has not been updated since 2012, but these films are still good!

Some personal favorites of recent years:What a Way to Go: Life at the End of EmpireCollapseBorn to be Wild: The Leading Men of American Ballet TheatreThese Amazing ShadowsIf a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Next are two more lists: First, films we've seen (with some links - I'm working on that) in "Video Viewpoints," a continuing neighborhood screening group. Or at least, these are the ones we really liked. After that you'll find a list of some free documentaries on the Web, with links.

In our neighborhood we get together to see documentaries every other Wednesday and sometimes on fifth Wednesdays, too, when there is one. The purpose is to explore different "viewpoints" so our list is eclectic. In fact some of these aren't documentaries, but as documentary buffs we appreciated the mix of viewpoints. I'm just starting to add links here but it won't be hard to find most of these on Netflix, You Tube, Hulu, PBS online, or the Free Speech TV website (and some are on that list of free online documentaries at the end).

We'll get as soon as we can; seen at AIFF 2011-2012We Are LegionEthelLove Free or DieAtomic States of AmericaValley of Saints (not a documentary, but of interest to doc fans)Shakespeare HighDavid (not a documentary, but...)The WelcomeThe Big UneasyHood to CoastOne VoiceProm Night in Mississippi
and several others

The following list was sent to me by someone who's very smart, but I haven't checked all the links and some might be broken. And I haven't seen them all so this is just offered FWIW; those which I have seen so far, and recommend, are highlighted in red.

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Welcome

This blog began as a place to collect and share some of my old and new book reviews. I still do that, but now anything goes and I'm just having fun with all this medium allows. For more on Planetbound, see this page. Also this one. I've been doing this for a while now, and try to keep links current, but if you come across any now-broken ones, please let me know via a comment. Thanks!

"I feel a history lesson coming on..."

'President John Quincy Adams said, in the 1820's, on the subject of our fighting to liberate Greece from Turkey, "The United States goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. If the United States took up all foreign affairs she might become the dictatress of the world, but she would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit." - Gore Vidal, speaking at a peace rally in 1984 on the eve of the Iraq War.

Reference

"Let us speak of peace. Let us listen to the message of love. And when these subjects are begun, let us speak of them from dawn to dawn." - Darshan Singh

Is DNA random?

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other in order that the people may require a leader.– Plato

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. - Frederick Douglass

SOME FAVORITE QUOTATIONS (AND IF THEY DIDN'T REALLY SAY IT, THEY SHOULD HAVE)

"The most common form of terrorism in the USA is that carried on by bulldozers and chain saws." - Edward Abbey

"The future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed." - William Gibson

"As you do until the least of the least, so you do unto me"

- Jesus

"All the heroes of tomorrow are the traitors of today" - Yip Harburg

"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." - Gandhi

"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." and "All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final." - Hypatia of Alexandria

"If we succeed in clearing the soil from the rubbish of the past and present, we will leave to posterity the greatest and safest heritage of the ages." - Emma Goldman

yeah, what he said...

Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you.

He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

-- George Carlin Politically Incorrect

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962 HUMANITARIAN, FEMINIST

The circumstances of her death fifty years ago are timely today as everything else about her. Click on image for the story.

Merlin Stone, 1931-2011 author, scholar, sculptor

Click on photo for a lovely tribute video. In the 1970s and 1980s she helped us remember the time before patriarchy; she wrote "When God Was a Woman" and "Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood." In the film Goddess Remembered, she proposed a return to a belief in an interconnected life system, with respect for the earth and the female, as fundamental to our survival.

Joanna Russ, 1937-2011 Writer

A unique and fabulous writer. She saw everything with new eyes in the 1970s and had fun doing it. New generations are still "rediscovering" her - and being challenged by her.

RIP Granny D 1910-2010 You can't clean up politics when you have to buy elections!

The Incomparable Granny D, reformer to the end. Photo is from womenmakehistory.com. Click on it for link to obit by John Nichols of The Nation (with more links) and mashup video by Heather at crooksandliars.com

Derek Humphry, another pioneer in the fight to win our natural right to death with dignity said: "If we are free people at all, then we must be free to choose the manner of our death." Dr. Kevorkian was demonized by popular culture and the media, but to me he was a hero.

My sign 1: Capricorn

My attitude toward astrology is irreconcilably dual. On the one hand, I know scientists think it's silly (and can back up their assertion with some pretty good arguments) and that due to precession we aren't even following the correct signs anymore, I've heard (but then if there isn't any real basis for astrology, what does it matter which signs we follow?) because I'm inclined to be skeptical and atheistic. On the other hand, the symbols are very useful in interpreting the world and you know what? They seem to work! And some people I respect highly do use astrology. Also, I've noticed that many astrologers--probably not the best ones-- tend to take a dim view of Capricorns in that they characterize us as "practical" "ambitious" "unimaginative" "materialistic" in a disparaging way (not as "spiritual" as other signs, which are primarily, say, "visionary" or, to put it less kindly, "airy-fairy"). This is because Capricorn is usually seen as a mountain-climbing goat. But wait- there's more! These shallow astrologers are disregarding the fact that we're equally creatures of water, as the tail shows (and thus vision drives us): Cappie is a "sea goat." Put the fish and goat together and we're something else altogether. Maybe our time is coming. The world needs both vision and the ability to work to make it real. Maybe some of these astrologers should re-examine their assumptions. And maybe I should just get back to work.

My sign 3: Pisces moon

"What's your sign?" usually stops at the sun sign, but I've been told that the rising and moon signs are important, too, in forming a person's character. I've been told that mine are both Pisces. This certainly would explain why I"m so aware of Capricorn's hidden-in-plain-sight visionary, water nature, as Pisces, an out-and-out water sign, and one sometimes identified with female nature, is supposed to represent vision as well (illo from Second Celtic Gallery). But what do I know; as a practical, agnostic Capricorn, I'm not supposed to believe in this stuff. Still, it makes a lot of symbolic sense (like a lot of other things my rational mind rejects).

Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012 writer, explorer of the human imagination

When asked on Starship Sofa "What do you think is the chief value of science fiction?" he responded "It helps people think about the future." From Dandelion Wine to the Martian Chronicles, his stories revealed to us the human experience, past and future.

Howard Zinn 1922-2010 "You can't be neutral on a moving train"

click on photo for first part of documentary. "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. [...] And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future."

May many more Mankillers, small and large, follow in this extraordinary woman's footsteps. "I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves."

Mary Daly, 1928-2010 but her work lives on

"There are and will be those who think I have gone overboard. Let them rest assured that this assessment is correct, probably beyond their wildest imagination, and that I will continue to do so." - Mary Daly

My Home

would credit if I knew who the artist was

My sign 2: Melusine

This creature of water is clearly related to Capricorn, but is a more purely female entity. As a Viking descendant and lifetime water rat myself, I identify strongly with this lady. Starbucks borrowed her for its seafaring-related logo; here she is in an early Nordic image that emphasizes her water nature in her lower body. In medieval lore she represented ambivalence about female sexuality, her twin tails seen as "serpents" (which of course is a meme closely related to patriarchal suppression of women). In alchemy (a philosophical endeavor brutally suppressed by the Church), "the siren’s two tails represent unity -of earth and water, body and soul." Yes, definitely another face of Capricorn - or vice versa.

Astrology 4: My planet, Saturn

Click on artwork for video from NASA: "What would it look like to approach Saturn in a spaceship? One doesn't have to just imagine -- the Cassini spacecraft did just this in 2004, recording thousands of images along the way, and thousands more since entering orbit. Recently, some of these images have been digitally tweaked, cropped, and compiled into the above inspiring video which is part of a larger developing IMAX movie project named Outside In. In the last sequence, Saturn looms increasingly large on approach as cloudy Titan swoops below. With Saturn whirling around in the background, Cassini is next depicted flying over Mimas, with large Herschel Crater clearly visible. Saturn's majestic rings then take over the show as Cassini crosses Saturn's thin ring plane. Dark shadows of the ring appear on Saturn itself. Finally, the enigmatic ice-geyser moon Enceladus appears in the distance and then is approached just as the video clip ends."